7:22pm: Baez is promised a total of $12.5MM, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (Twitter links). That includes a $500K signing bonus, successive salaries of $4.5MM and $5.5MM, and with a $2MM buyout of a $7.5MM club option.
The pact also contains some other financial provisions. Baez could add up to $1MM to his 2022 salary depending upon how many innings he throws. He could boost the buyout to $2.5MM and the option price to $8MM through innings-pitched-based escalators.
6:22pm: The deal includes an option for a third year, escalators and a buyout, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who tweets that the total value could range from $12MM to $14MM. It’s a team option, per Mark Berman of Fox 26.
5:05pm: The Astros have agreed to a two-year contract with free-agent reliever Pedro Baez, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports. Financial details aren’t yet known, and the deal is pending a physical. Baez is a Kelvin Nova client.
The Astros are landing a proven late-game option in the right-handed Baez, who recorded a 3.03 ERA with a 25.3 percent strikeout rate and an 8.2 percent walk rate over 356 innings as a Dodger from 2014-20. Baez put up a 3.18 ERA during his last season with Los Angeles, though he notched a much less encouraging 4.98 SIERA along the way and easily registered career-worst numbers in average fastball velocity (94.4 mph), strikeout rate (18.6) and swinging-strike percentage (12.4). The year before that, Baez managed 96 mph velo, a strikeout percentage of 25.0 and a 15.0 percent swinging-strike rate.
Addressing the relief corps has been a known point of emphasis this offseason for Astros general manager James Click, who signed former Ray and Marlin Ryne Stanek before agreeing to the Baez deal. The club was also in on Liam Hendriks before he agreed to a pact with the White Sox and has been linked to Brad Hand, Trevor Rosenthal and Alex Colome. Any of the latter three would seemingly be more impactful additions than Baez and Stanek, so the Astros may not be done trying to upgrade a bullpen that dealt with significant health issues in 2020 and finished a middle-of-the-pack 15th in the majors in ERA (4.39).
Heineken!?? Man, f that s!!! Pabst blue ribbon!!!
Dodgers fans everywhere are rejoicing. Love it
Never thought I would thank the Astros for anything. But…. nah still won’t thank the Cheats. Really happy we won’t have to see Baez again, however.
Love all the Dodger fans comments. Once you log off, go send more love letters or Mookie Betts, a known cheater in Boston
Orbit, there is nothing to support your post about Betts. Go whine elsewhere.
You must be blind. Look at his numbers in 2018 compared to the rest of his career. Same with benintendi
Yeah, as a Dodgers fan, I never thought I would say this…”Thank you, Astros!”
he was not that good he blew saves just needs new scenery. dodger fan mind reader ig.
the candy colored man they call the sand man
He’ll definitely improve his spin rate
U can’t use “colored man” in any sentence. U r now banned from sports
As a Dodger fan, sad to see Baez go but it is still a good signing for the ‘stros
yuck
Maybe he just wants to use all their cheating devices ♂️
As a dodgers fan glad to see him gone, absolutely garbage pitcher with excellent stuff and not clutch. Seen this guy blow more games that actually lock them down.
Couldn’t agree more. Astros, have fun watching this guy give up back breaking homer after back breaking homer and then pitching great only with a huge lead
He is going to be amazing. Possibly Even a closer. Don’t Underestimate how much Better he will be once he gets that increased Spin Rate from Using Illegal Substances. Unless He has already been using them. Then he will still suck
what are you talking about???????
Every time Roberts would call this guy in, I would turn off the TV. Happy that he’s finally gone.
Happy as well –
Never wanted to see this guy i the postseason
bro me to bro me to
101 holds, 16 blown saves in 355 appearances over 7 years.
I’m thinking you have selection bias.
Sadler, many Dodger fans do. In atajt disregard of the solid statistics he put up, the knucklehead fans likely find facts to against them.
*Blatant* disregard
Yeah they ignore the 150 games a year they don’t watch and focus on the couple games a year in which he doesn’t pitch well. Part of being an uninformed Dodgers fan.
So you saying Dodger fans are idiots? I watch every game. Not every key situation qualifies as a hold or save situation. Please shut your ignorant mouth.
Oh so you watch all dodgers games then?
Come polish the ring sad boys!
I’d be interested to see when the blown saves came majority are quality opponents and in playoffs. Padding stats against padres, arizona, and rockies in blow out wins doesn’t really equal the same does it?
2/12 for Baez when May is getting a 2/15 and Trienan 2/17.5 is not a good value for Baez whatsoever –
Dodgers spent right – Best wishes to Baez but having him be a cog in the pen the last 5 post seasons was not fun. Much prefer the upside/downside of a Knebel than the predictable Baez
I find the Dodger fans who boast about every player like their the greatest thing ever to be far more annoying than the ones who know how to say an amicable good-bye
Enrico, based on the way you’re responding-at the very least you are a victim of your own recency bias. Commenting based upon emotions does not serve you well.
Tatsumaki….Hablas Ingles?
I realize that voice-to-text has it’s issues…
I’m one of the few who agrees with you, he was always solid.
Good for the Astros. They need bullpen help and Baez is a solid reliever.
Seems like a decent reliever. I’m surprised more people weren’t in on him.
Best of both worlds – no longer a Dodger and now has the opportunity to blow games for the Asterisks
This wins
Yup
Astros games have just gotten 10 minutes longer on average. Nobody holds onto the ball longer between pitches than Baez.
For real, he has the longest delay among all MLB pitchers, when pitching in games.
It would take 30 sec just for him to throw one pitch. I’d always go to the restroom when he pitches cause I’m not even missing one pitch lol.
Baez is good in low leverage situations but when the stakes are high he serves up more meatballs then an Italian restaurant.
that’s why you record and use the DVR. Baez’s pitches are 25-30 seconds apart…
He tried but never thought he was as good as his numbers suggested. Lots of key hits given up. Maybe I just remember his failures more than most. He’s always said he wanted to have a chance to close. Maybe this is it.
Typically how it goes. Fans remember the failures more than the success of RPs.
^ this
Definitely.
I think you are remembering his failures more because he seemed to be the #1 guy put in when there was trouble in the late innings. You can’t get out of every jam.. An interesting stat he has 100 career holds (coming in to the game in a save situation and handing it off to the next guy with the lead) and 15 blown saves. thats more than solid. in 2019 he was 13th in baseball in Holds. His record was 21-15 which is also above average..
Another interesting fact is that he was often the guy that pitched to the 3, 4, and 5 spots in the late innings so his degree of difficulty was always higher.
Overall pitching to career 3.03 ERA over 7 seasons was fantastic! Every team needs a Pedro Baez.
The Man say, “OUCH!” So won’t you listen to what the man say
What is his K/9 and BB/9?
Tap his name in the article to find out
Imagine if one had a way to find this out.
onenatsfan
If only someone could invent a magical device, where one could click on a hyperlink and find out the player’s K/W numbers. Fortunately for you, I am a computer savant.
baseball-reference.com/players/b/baezpe01.shtml?ut…
Best of luck old friend.
Predicting 2 year 12 million
Baez is a good addition. Underrated pickup.
Should come with a bottle of tums for the fan base. Long at bats, lots of 3 ball counts, walks, and gut wrenching bombs in crucial moments. As I recall the Dodgers left him off their post season roster a few years ago.
Decent reliever, not a big loss. Sure, he had some bad outings but he was not as bad as Dodger fans make him out to be. When he first came up he was a one pitch pitcher. Just flat out gas all the time. Walked less batters then but then gave up more hits. He finally learned to throw the slider more consistently which made him less hittable but issued more walks.
He’s trash with men on base. Give him a clean inning and he’s lights out.
not a lot of movement on his fastball. therefore lots of hard contact…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA……deep breath….AHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
You and I both, man. Good riddance baez. People always want to point to his decent era, but that doesn’t reflect the inherited runners he constantly gives up.
If you can’t come in with a runner on then wtf good are you as a reliever?!
interesting stats. Inherited runners/inherited runners scored
Baez 152/49 /32%
Mariano Rivera 367/107/29%
Baez always had a love-hate relationship with Dodger fans. Overall, he was a pretty solid pitcher, but when he blew up, he really blew up. And often in key situations. Plus, his snail pace on the mound was irritating.
Good luck Pedro.
The Dodgers sent him down to work on the pace issue, which at its worst a few years ago was monumental. It wasn’t so bad after that but time was you could go get yourself a Dodger Dog between pitches and when you got back to your seat he’d still be rubbing up the baseball. Agonizing, and one good reason why Dodger fans don’t have totally positive feelings about Baez. Also the team that knows him best didn’t seem to be even slightly interested in signing him back, and it isn’t fan bias to notice that either.
STRIKE 2 for Minasian.
Baez is a bit boring but he has mostly gotten the job done for quite a while now.
Except if he inherits runners
I wouldn’t be surprised if Kershaw smiled when he saw Baez is gone. Seemed like a guarantee any runners Baez inherited, from Kershaw especially, were guaranteed to score. That scenario only seemed to worsen in the post season.
as a giants fan I am going to miss that guy, we always seemed to beat him up.
He was a different pitcher in the postseason, gave up a lot of dingers, I tend to remember those like most of us.
As a dodger fan HALLELUJAAAAH!!!!!!
Hmmm… I like this and Stanek together. Maybe they can resurface both of their careers like they have done so many times before.
I could see this not going well. Baez in the ballpark with a declining fastball could lead to a lot of goopher balls
Baez was a Dodger from the start, but his performance as of late has been irritating….nothing like watching a guy that can bring the mid to high 90s throw change up after change up after change up after change up after change up after change up after change up after change up after change up ……
You think he should change it up?
Surprised that his changeup percentage usage climbed so much in the last few years. Looks like analytics was saying his changeup was lights out in 2019, so even more changeup usage in 2020. Makes sense to me.
Without the change he was a one-pitch pitcher. Nobody gets by with just a fastball in MLB no matter how hard you can throw it.
he has a slider he just does not throw it often
Regressing, not good in the clutch and a new team. I predict career worst season
Don’t worry.
Astros will show him the magic sauce and he will have a sub 2 ERA and a sub 1 WHIP.
Shut up.
LOL…Yes, because the Dodgers don’t know how to develop pitching. ‘Tevs. Enjoy your tainted ring!
It fits nicely thank you!!!
Trash can sauce?
Magic Sauce = Bang Bang
Glad to see him move on. Way too up and down for my taste.
Roberts’ favorite toy out of the bullpen is gone. Wonder what horse that should be put out to pasture he’s going to ride to death now…
Baez is basically Hansel Robles with a bit better results, hes good when its the 7th inning and the team has a 8 run lead, when its crunch time he gives up a homer
$12-14mm guaranteed? That seems like a gross overpay for Baez. No way the Dodgers were going to keep him for that amount. I’ve been surprised at the salaries given out to relievers so far. Not a lot of activity but the ones that have been done have gone higher than anticipated.
got that right.
Just cause he underperformed at a certain point for the Dodgers, doesn’t mean he won’t bounce as he moves on. Man there sure are a visible amount of Dodger fans on here dragging his name in the mud lol be happy for what he did for your team during his tenure with you. Guess y’all are mad because he’s going to Houston, where you know Strom will make him damn near unhittable! Lmao
Not sad to see ol’ blow-ez headed out of town. Too much of a roller coaster ride when he was on the mound. A little sad that he’d sign with the cheaters, but I guess he took what he could get and cant really blame him for that. Will be funny watching him pitch in that pony-league park!
Ding dong the witch is dead. Omg thank the lord. As people have said above he was and is a decent pitcher at times but sooooo not clutch. Just when your trying to lock it down he would give up a massive bomb to blow the lead. Two great thing came out of this. 1 the Dodgers got rid of him and 2 just weakened the cheaters bullpen. Adios amigos
To celebrate, Baez reportedly stepped off the rubber, fiddled with the rosin bag, and wandered aimlessly around the mound for a minute.
Nice one. You don’t get the nickname the “human rain delay” for no reason. I was okay with bringing Baez back at a reasonable price, but $12-14mm guaranteed is not reasonable. It’s just flat out stupidity.
Ludicrous for RPs this offseason!! Hendricks was Divinely Assinine a $54 ML! Asterisks will maintain their mediocrity longer now! Good!
Agreed. I’m glad that Friedman typically doesn’t like to overpay for relievers but when he does it usually doesn’t work out well. I can understand signing Jansen after his dominant years but that ended badly. Joe Kelly was a big mistake. Treinen last year a bit disappointing but not bad. May have overpaid for him for the next two years. Money better spent elsewhere. Keep finding cheap/young relievers and spend the money on starting pitching and position players.
Those people in the Crawford boxes best get some hard-hats
Good luck Baez. Not real consistent and was dubbed the human rain delay but when he was on, he was lights out.
Jesus are Dodger fans in the comments really this clueless? Lol soo because the few times you watched him pitch all you can remember we’re the few HRs he gave up and that’s why he’s an awful pitcher? Baez has literally given up 1 more home run than Liam Hendricks in each of the past 4 seasons. Hes given up less hits 155 to 157. He’s given up 7 more runs 69 runs to Liam’s 63. The biggest difference are walks 81 by Baez and 57 by Liam , as well as strikeouts 208 by Baez and 261 for Liam. Considering the contract difference 39mill/3yrs for Liam or 14mill/2yrs for Baez it’s not a bad move whatsoever for the Astros. As far as Dodger fans go you guys need to learn more baseball and stop believing this idea that every single dodger move is a genius one. Considering they just let go of arguably their most consistent reliever over the last half decade.
4 seasons-
Baez: 207 IP
Hendriks: 198.1 IP
Common comment from Dodgers fans is regarding inherited runners.
Baez: stranded 58 of 79 in those 4 seasons.
Hendriks: stranded 61 of 89 in those 4 seasons.
(53 of 70 for Hader for a small bit of reference point)
Baez getting ripped unfairly it seems.
Hendriks better in most areas, but factor the contract difference, definitely not a bad move!
You’re including two bad years from Hendricks. Baez has been more consistent but less upside. Hendricks is getting paid for the last 2 years and not the 2 previous seasons before that. I agree that Baez is not as bad as Dodger fans make him out to be. You’re also assuming that the Hendricks contract is good. It’s not. Relief pitching is the most overrated position. It’s such a small sample size that causes stats to be skewed on any given season. There are very few relievers that are consistently good every year. Those are the guys who should get paid.
how about this stat:
career inherited runners scored:
Baez 32%
Mariano Rivera 29%
Empty-calorie stats against weak division rivals. Never could get big outs. The Kenley Jansen roller coaster is exhausting enough. See ya later Pedro
Few years ago Hendricks was DFAd a few times! So that isn’t saying much about Pedro Blow-ez at all! Flash in the pan Hendricks found some mystery magic all of a sudden after years of mediocrity! No loss to LADs here! Grandma was slow but she was 90!
I would disagree about his reliability. Earlier in his career he was more erratic, but improved slightly. Then what would happen is he would look pretty good for a middle reliever. He is a boom or bust kinda guy now who is on his last run. The Dodgers sent him down to the minors for being inefficient over the last two to three years. Last year was kinda flooky due to the shortened season. Have fun with that contract Astros
You compare Baez to Hendricks, and Dodger fans are clueless?
who said that? and beaz is so bad liam hendricks could prob hit a walk of against beaz he is that bad.
….. some of you dullards are borderline incomprehensible.
Wow!!!! Finally my dream came true!
Well the angels won’t do nothing again this year them same angels
Blow-ez was not on Minasian’s list and should not have been…Asterisks signing of him actually helps Arte’s Angels!
“Won’t do nothing…” what, exactly, are you trying to say?
The problem with Baez is he never seemed to be able to perform when he needed to. I think he blew close to 100% of the leads he was given in the playoffs in 20.
Bam bam. Bam bam.
You win best comment of the day.
i liked the guy and always rooted for him. he just always seemed incredibly nervous especially in the big moments. idt he’s ever truly trusted his own stuff. not ever going to root of a member of the asstros but good luck petey.
You can display all the analytics you want, but if you can’t use him in high leverage situations because you can’t trust him or know he is going to give up that big hit to blow the lead then looks like you can go be an Astros fan.
Idk. Everything that I can see from his pitching splits show that he does a better job pitching in high and medium leverage positions rather than low. I think it’s a solid addition for the Astros. I remember after the 2019 WS, Astros fans thought will Harris was terrible in high leverage situations which wasn’t true at all. I think the Astros will have at least a passable bullpen with Pressly, Baez, Smith, Stanek, Raley, Paredes, Taylor, and Scrubb. If their offense can rebound and Greinke regains ace form, Astros could still be scary.
“Astros could be scary” hahah…. Cool story bro
You’re dreaming. Stros are irrelevant now.
Full year from Yordan and full season rebounds from Correa, Altuve, and Bregman could disagree with you, but if they perform like they did in a little over a third of a regular season last year, then you could be right. I’m not saying the Astros will ever be redeemed in anyone’s eyes, but that doesn’t take away from their potential. Should be a dog fight in the AL West. If they make the postseason, you might want to be just a little scared with all their prior experience. We’ve seen their players still go on a tear in the 2020 postseason.
Don’t forget the rookie Luis Garcia. He looks nasty and could very well be thrown into the Paredes, Scrubb, Taylor group next season. Imo, I think Paredes should be the closer because even though Pressly is a good setup guy, he isn’t a good closer for this team at all. I think this bullpen is good now. Time to focus on getting starter(s) now and filling out the outfield.
not that it matters anymore but I’d rather see Baez than Jansen in a big game…
I see your point, but Baez was not a closer. Didn’t want to see Baez because that means that Jansen blew the save.
I’ve got love for Baez. He was solid in his time with LA. His K/BB ratio has been going down consistently and absolutely plummeted. last year. Still, with that, he managed an ERA + of 135. It’s just that with his declining velo and inability to put hitters away like he used to, the Dodgers didn’t have a spot for him in that deep bullpen. He got a lot more money than I thought he would. Good for him.
Good luck Petey!
Agreed. He was a decent pitcher, but he needed new scenery. Glad he got paid that much from anyone else but the Dodgers.
dodger fans have taken the throne of most annoying team and fan base in baseball bar none imo. even topping the yanks and the Astros which everyone loves to beat to death
And no one cares! Good luck with this guy Trashro’s!
You cared enough to comment, though.
I’ll tell you…every time a Dodgers game was close…I had one thought consistently…don’t bring in Baez. He simply can’t handle it. I’ve been wishing for him to go away for years. He is only useful in blowout games and that is where his stats come from.
I’m not sure if that’s literally true, but I do know that one of the most reliable ways of raising a groan in Dodger Stadium was the sight of Baez trotting out of the bullpen gate. A few years ago we actually left our seats in the late innings when Baez walked the bases loaded. It wasn’t even that so much as it took him nearly a half hour to do it.
I have patience watching sports…I lack patience for poor performance. Especially when it matters most. Yes it is “literally” true as my post pertains to my opinion.
that is why i cant wait to watch him blow games for houston im from texas and im a dodger fan.
I agree with your post and did not mean any offense.
your good man. what team do you go for?
Dodgers on my part.
None taken. What I meant by literally is statistically. It sure seemed like he was worse than average in high-leverage situations but that’s just an impression.
Thank you Pedro Baez for all your hard work in Dodger Blue! He is one of the many unsung hero’s during this Dodger run of greatness. He was always put in to put out fires in late inning, high leverage situations often with men already on base. He pitched to a solid 3.03 ERA over his career never higher than 3.35. He also had an excellent 131 career ERA+. posting 130 or more in 6 of his 7 seasons.
In his seven year career he earned 9.182 mil (6.1 in the last two) and this was his first trip into free agency. He just guaranteed himself 12-14 mil and a possible total of 18 mil over the course of three years. He earned it. I doubt the Dodgers would have offered him as much money. Like so many other players that came before him, the Dodgers are Happy to have had his services and are happy to see him get paid. Good for you Pedro!
I’m a Dodgers fan, and unlike most, I liked Pedro Baez. The dude worked, and he was a solid reliever for some really good Dodgers teams. He’s never not made the playoffs.. 50+ innings in each full season in the Majors, not counting the playoffs. Not bad for a converted 3rd baseman, who only had only 100 innings pitched in the minors before making his debut. He won a Championship with the Dodgers, and after watching him get booed by “Dodgers fans”, watching him win the World Series, and being part of that team, was pretty sweet.